Fifteen-year-old Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya has become Russia’s youngest athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics after her splendid free skate in the team figure skating event.

(NOTE:Previously, our report mistakenly
stated that Lipnitskaya had become the youngest Olympic champion
in the history of the Winter Games, for which we apologize. As it
turned out, the youngest is South Korean short track speed skater
Kim Yun-mi. She won her medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics in
Lillehammer at the age of 13.)

She is six days younger than US figure skater Tara Lipinski was
when she won a gold medal in Nagano in 1998. Lipnitskaya's
victory makes her the youngest Olympic Gold medalist in figure
skating history.

Lipnitskaya's phenomenal performances in the short program and
free skate in the figure skating team competition left the
Iceberg Skating Palace speechless. She received a standing
ovation.

She has emerged as perhaps the biggest challenge to her main
rivals, skaters from Italy, Canada, Japan and America.

In her spectacular debut at the Winter Olympics, she easily
out-skated far more experienced competitors, including Carolina
Kostner of Italy in her third Olympics, and Japan's Mao Asada,
competing in her second Games.

Although the Olympics is the first tournament of such scale for
Yulia, she did not seem nervous. With no visible anxiety, she
stood on the ice and performed as though she did it every day
under such conditions.

Her nearly inhuman flexibility, combined with brilliant rotation
on her spins and deft soaring jumps, left the audience amazed and
impressed the judges.

She showed the second-best result ever in ladies’ free skating at
the Sunday event, scoring 141.51 points and earning a combined
total of 214.41 points. The current record holder is South Korean
figure skater Kim Yuna, who was the 2010 Olympic champion in
ladies' singles with 150.06 and 228.56 points, respectively.

Lipnitskaya said that in the so-called zone of "tears and
kisses," where skaters await results, the festive atmosphere
reigned after her performance.

"Maksim Trankov [figure skater] gave me a hug,” she said.
“Evgeny Plushenko said that everybody should learn from
me."

After her sensational free skate program to music from
'Schindler’s List', Lipnitskaya modestly told journalists that
this was not her best performance.

“For me, this skate was not the best. We will work on
mistakes so that on the individual championship there are no
flaws,” she said. “It was annoying that I failed with
the last rotation,” she confessed. “And, yes, I could
strengthen jumps. In the individual tournament, I set the highest
goals.”

She will now fly home to Moscow, where she trains, and return to
Sochi in several days to compete for gold in the individual
event.

Born in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains,
Lipnitskaya first stood on the ice at four years old.

By the age of 10, she had won every tournament in her city, which
meant it was time to make a decision: move to the capital and
continue her career, or leave the sport.

When the question about moving to Moscow arose, her mother
Daniela did not hesitate to abandon everything and leave with her
daughter. It wasn't easy, but she believed Yulia would be able to
show excellent results at various competitions. Yulia lived up to
those expectations.

Lipnitskaya’s success was followed by a silver medal at the
senior level of the 2012 Russian Championships and gold at the
2012 Russian Junior Championships. It was there that she set her
first record, achieving the ladies’ World Junior record with a
combined total of 187.05 points on the free skate.

Throughout the entire 2011–2012 season, Yulia had no falls on the
ice in any her competitions.